A lot darker than my usual stuff, but I love the way this turned out. It reminds me of a charcoal drawing I did at art school – the assignment was to paint light. I painted a dark room with sun streaming in a window. I’m not sure where that is now, but it hung in my house every time I moved till I came to Greece.

This piece is once more on the smaller matboard pieces my friend Antigone gave me (offcuts from her framing shop). I like the slight texture of these boards, not as rough as the canvas paper I used yesterday. And the small size means its easy to do in a day. Larger pieces, like the one on my easel currently, need a lot of time spent on them so they’re more a long-term project.

Today I woke up feeling like painting, which was great, so I took advantage of that getting straight into it after my morning coffee.

The original plan had been to deal with the basement store room in the morning – otherwise known as ‘the rat house’ – but I painted first!

My next door neighbour and I had got the local handyman to clean our store rooms and fill all the holes the critters were getting in through. He did a great job. He moved everything out of our units, sealed all the holes, put mesh on the louvre part of the doors, and swept and even mopped using bleach.

Needless to say, the broom, mop and bucket he used are being put in the bin and will never see the inside of my house again.

Today we went down donned in rubber gloves and masks to tackle our stuff. Some was put straight in the bin. Other stuff had to be re-wrapped cause the old bags were covered the rat and mouse crap. Everything was washed down with bleach and put back in neatly.

Its not so scary going down there now. I mean, its still damp, being underground, and I hate putting things in storage there, but at least they’re no longer covered in poop. Eww. Even the smell is much improved.

Now I think I may even store stuff down there and visit a bit more often to keep an eye on the rodent situation. If I see so much as a tiny hole being gnawed into a pipe or wall I’ll get onto it immediately.

They’ll still get in, I’m sure, but hopefully our store rooms are no longer superhighways in and out of the place.

z